llustrator and painter, Dilka Bear studied Architecture at the Almaty University of Arts, in Kazakhstan.
After working as an illustrator and a graphic designer for companies such as Cosmopolitan Kazakhstan, Grey Central Asia, Saatchi & Saatchi Kazakhstan, she devoted herself to painting. In 2005, she moved to Trieste where she currently lives.

She paints beautiful illustrations of young children and their frank expressions that mirrors the worlds around them.
Dilka's quintessential young figures interacting harmoniously with animals and creatures in the landscape. Dilka Bear is known for painting emotive children oftentimes found in rural settings amongst wildlife of a surrealistic nature. Each painting is a piece of a greater story and imbue the dream like qualities of a child's imagination. The inhabitants of her paintings can always be found in the natural world sharing their personal tales. In this particular series, a focus on the changing environment can be noted through the artist's palette, landscape and narrative.
A symbiotic balance of life is demonstrated by the natural interactions present between animals and humans. Yet Dilka's world is not a pristine one. A sense of melancholia touches each child's face and echoes of death present darker themes of reality. Environmental changes are depicted, and the correlation between humans and nature are clearly defined. A fish lays limp in a young girl's lap as she kneels at the sea shore painted mostly with yellow, murky tones. A bumble bee rests submissively in the arms of another girl in an icy landscape. In each of these girl's gazes, beyond their innocence, is a sense of all knowingness present that makes us question our current relationship with our own environment.

Dilka Bear has been drawing and imagining her own stories since childhood. With their confrontational gaze, many of Dilka's children beckon you to join them in their world, a world upon first glance, that is foreign, yet familiar, as a sense of nostalgia is rekindled in our hearts, returning us to a place of thought and substance we commonly experienced as children. These dreamy tales appear sentimental and sanguine, yet they poignantly reflect the world as it is in its current state.



SELECTED SHOWS

2021
Dreambags and Jaguar Shoes, Kirk Gallery, Denmark

2020
Fousion Finest 2020, Fousion Gallery, Barcelona
Drifting into Post Surrealism MMXX, Fousion Gallery, Barcelona

2019
La Lune II Group Exhibition, Haven Gallery, Northport
Hello Kitty 45th Anniversary Group Show, Corey Helford Gallery, Los Angeles

2018
Saturnalia, Fousion Gallery, Barcelona

2017
Tales of The Two Moons, Fousion Gallery, Barcelona
Wild Nights & Day Dreams, Fousion Gallery, Barcelona

2013
Draw, Auguste Clown Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Blue Hour, Auguste Clown Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Into the Wild, Strychnin Gallery, Berlin, Germany
All Stars, 10 Years Anniversary Exhibition, Strychnin Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Kingdom of Broken Dreams: Dilka Bear & Paolo Petrangeli”, Flower Pepper Gallery, Pasadena, USA

2012
Run Away Circus, Auguste Clown Gallery, Melbourne, Australia Vanishing Point, Auguste Clown Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

2011
Italian Pop Surrealism, Mondo Bizzarro, Rome, Italy

SOLO SHOWS

2014
Forgotten Memories, Auguste Clown Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

2013
Sleepwalker’s Dreams, Auguste Clown Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

2012
Wild Escape”, Mondo Bizzarro, Rome